The Queen's Husband Read Online Free PDF Page B

Ernest; and then supper and bed. The trivial social life of the evening tired him; he could be painfully uncomfortable, finding it impossible to hide his fatigue. There had been an occasion when he had actually dozed at table and only Ernest’s constant prodding had kept him from slumping over the table in deep sleep.
    Ernest taunted his brother in his good-humoured way; but he would always watch over Albert on special occasions to make sure he did not disgrace himself by falling off his chair and continuing to sleep on the floor – which he had done once when they were alone.
    The brothers understood each other. Albert had never had the physical energy of Ernest; Ernest had never had the mental ability of Albert. They were different; they respected the difference; and the bond between them grew closer as the years progressed.
    Out into the beautiful forest they rode. They were at Reinhardtsbrunnen, the home of their maternal grandfather. He was dead but his brother Frederick had inherited the title and estates and the boys were always welcome there. How Albert loved the forest, with the sunshine throwing dappled patterns through the leaves of the trees; and riding on and on to where the trees grew more thickly, he recalled the fairy stories their grandmothers had told them and which invariably were set in forests such as this.
    ‘That was a long time ago,’ he said, speaking his thoughts aloud. Ernest shouted: ‘What?’
    Albert told his brother that he was thinking of the stories about the forests where gnomes and trolls, woodcutters and princesses and witches had abounded.
    ‘You always enjoyed them. They used to tell them to keep you from howling. You were a little howler, Albert. Always in tears. I can remember your screams now. What a pair of lungs you must have had!’
    ‘I must have been a horrid child.’
    ‘You were. But one thing about you, you did know how to get your own way. I salute you, Albert. You always will, I’m sure.’
    ‘Ernest, have you ever thought that we shan’t always be together?’
    ‘Good God no. Why shouldn’t we be?’
    ‘Our grandmothers would not care to hear you use such oaths.’
    ‘Prude!’ Ernest jogged Albert with his elbow and almost knocked him off his horse, then he broke into a gallop and Albert, spurring his horse, went after him.
    Ernest pulled up and waited for his brother. ‘What did you mean by that?’ he demanded, ‘Of course we shall always be together. Who’d stop us?’
    ‘Circumstances,’ suggested Albert. ‘When I marry the Queen of England I suppose I shall have to live there.’
    ‘Marry the Queen of England! Who says you will? Suppose I marry her instead?’
    ‘ You! But she has been promised to me.’
    ‘Royal marriages.’ Ernest scoffed. ‘What’s suggested in our cradles doesn’t always come off. Surely you know that? And this queen … she’s not a queen is she?’
    ‘I follow what is happening over there. The old King George is dead and his brother William is King. He is old and half mad and his wife is sterile.’
    ‘Hold it a minute,’ said Ernest.
    ‘What an expression!’ chided Albert.
    ‘My dear old prude and pedant of a brother, old men often surprise the world with their virility. What if your little Alexandrina Victoria is not a queen after all? Then what, eh? If you marry her she’ll have to come to Coburg and I shall be the Duke remember. I am the elder brother.’
    ‘Perhaps Uncle Leopold wouldn’t want me to marry her if she isn’t a queen.’
    ‘There you are. Too many “ifs”. You stop fretting about this cousin until she is the Queen. Now what about tying up the horses. I believe this is a good spot for the butterflies.’
    ‘I was only saying, Ernest, that if she becomes Queen and I marry her and live in England I should expect you to come and visit me … often.’
    ‘Well, thanks for the invitation. My equerry will accept it in due course.’
    ‘As Duke of Coburg you might not have one. Father is